Wedgie

The Seattle Mariners introduced their fifth field manager since July 2007 on Tuesday.

At this point the M's have become the baseball equivalent of the guy who always, no matter where he is in his life, has to have a girlfriend. You know the guy - he was the first kid in school to have a girlfriend in 4th grade, and could never be alone after that. Some relationships were pretty brief (John McLaren, Jim Riggleman, Darren Brown). Others lasted a little longer (Don Wakamatsu). Overall, none seemed too spectacular. And at the end of the day, the guy was no better or no worse off after they ended.

So now we're left to speculate on how the Eric Wedge era will play out. The 2007 AL Manager of the Year inherits a team that set new lows in underachievement and character. Wedge managed his share of underachieving teams, and even more underachieving players (Travis Hafner, 2008 Franklin Gutierrez). It's safe to assume he knows the drill.

During his press conference, Wedge remarked how the current Mariners are much farther along in the rebuilding process than the 2003 Cleveland Indians team he took over. That team was far better offensively than the Mariners are (not a hard thing to do when Michael Saunders isn't swinging at every breaking ball in the dirt). The current Mariners hold a clear edge in starting and relief pitching (even counting Ryan-Rowland-Smith, who hopefully will be getting a one-way ticket on Qantas Airlines).

For what the Mariners lack in offense, they come close to making up for it in young, explosive arms. It's safe to assume M's GM Jack Zduriencik will ship off some of those arms this offseason for a couple bats.

If all goes well, Wedge should have enough to at least bring the team back to .500 baseball. Wedge comes off as someone who is pretty intense, and won't put up with any of the crap the divisive Chone Figgins pulled last year under Wakamatsu.

While Wedge doesn't have the big ticket appeal of Bobby Valentine, or the sentimental value of Joey Cora (still seems odd to me that he didn't even get an interview), he is only three years removed from having the Indians one win away from the World Series.

And if that's not enough, Wedge looks 62, not 42 (the mustache doesn't help). He also gets points for raiding Dwight Schrute's closet, and for being Tom Niedenfuer's twin brother who was separated at birth.